Civil society groups in Rajasthan have called upon the Congress government to bring in a legislation on social accountability to ensure better delivery of public goods and services and make officials accountable. A protracted campaign for the law, along with the demand to strengthen public grievance redressal system, has been going on in the State.
At a pre-budget consultation with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot here, activists said transparency in officials’ functioning, citizens’ participation in governance, accountability in delivery of services, decentralisation of the process and establishment of an independent grievance redressal structure would be important features of the statute which the ruling Congress had earlier promised.
Draft Bill proposal
The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangthan, led by social activist and Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy, has already proposed a draft Bill. Shankar Singh of MKSS highlighted the issues of increasing the number of employment guarantee days from 100 to 150, increase in minimum wages and social security pensions and adoption of silicosis policy for labourers engaged in the mining sector.
The consultation was held here ahead of the budget session starting on June 27. Mr. Gehlot said NGOs and civil society groups should play an important role in taking the benefits of the government’s welfare programmes to the grassroots and in making the administration accountable to people.
Mr. Gehlot had assured during an interaction with the activists earlier this year that either the Guaranteed Delivery of Public Services Act and the Right to Hearing Act would be merged or a new accountability law would be enacted shortly. Both of these statutes were enacted during the Congress regime of 2008-13.
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties demanded that the State government put in place transparent mechanisms and platforms for dialogue from the village to the State level, as the present system was “opaque, non-transparent and arbitrary”.
PUCL State president Kavita Srivastava said new shelters for women and homeless families should be opened and arrangements made for giving free medicines and diagnostics to them.